Gladys Zizakele Semenye is a young South African woman who established and designs for C S G CINDY S GLADYS, a brand for ladies and gentlemen who have a strong sense of style, fabric conscious, Sustainability of what they purchase. Individuals that love the details, creativity, craftsmanship and warmth of a well-made garment, style yet very conscious of the impact they make on the planet through fashion. Individuals who admire craftsmanship when it comes to fashion and lifestyle. She acquired experience, qualifications and abilities throughout the years of studies in the Italian region of Piedmont, (Turin) once a capital of fashion as early as the 1900 before it passed on to Paris and Milan still to date, we know as current fashion Capitals in Europe.
When she founded C S G, she wanted to make a difference and this desire drove her to dedicating her time in understanding sustainability and its importance for both our lives and the life of the planet.
As a design-focused, multifaceted fashion designer with progressive career of holding diverse roles, including Pattern maker, Textile Technician, Cutter, Garment Construction, Sampling, and Visual Merchandiser, Gladys has exceptional technical expertise and solid work ethic.
Her knowledge of fashion and textile industry is complemented by training and tenure with companies that are key industry players, including Department of Leather Technology as an intern before starting her own brand in 2016 and in 2018 officially launched the sustainable fashion brand at (Torino Fashion Week 2018) in Italy where she lived for 15 years, and in 2019 she relocated the brand to South Africa where it is currently operating. Her core strength as a founder, designer and director is the keen ability to foster a positive, supportive work environment that advances efficiency and encourages buy-in to key initiatives across departments in the business
Some of her accomplishments include:
- Received certificate of recognition for significant contribution as Head Designer to the creation of the collection, representing women (survived from gambling).
- Awarded “The Excellence in Italian Style and Craftsmanship” by CNA National Craft Consortium in 2018.
- Certificate of participation in the upcoming designers hosted by TRA ARTE E ARTIGIANATO DESTINI INCROCCIATI.
Known for her ability to champion a company’s vision and motivate others to achieve individual and shared goals, she delivered tangible results in her prior roles. Her contributions have included acquiring various qualifications and experience in the fashion segment’s production processes.
Skilled at leveraging creative design ideas with a high level of skill in sketching, technical drawing, pattern cutting, and material usage optimization.
- Credited with comprehensive textile and technical knowledge of women, and men wearing garments and soft décor, a high ability to contribute efficient solutions.
- Stellar record of collaborating with design, buying, and pattern teams from concept to completion to ensure alignment of priorities and direction.
- Strong grasp of fashion solutions, material innovation, and product development.
- Creative problem-solver with interpersonal, organizational, leadership, and communication skills with proficiency in speaking, writing and reading Italian and English languages.
- Textile technician
- Pattern Making
- Visual merchandiser
C S G CINDY S GLADYS is a ladies and gentlemen smart casual and elegant fashion brand, that focuses on sustainability, we produce our garments with a 100% biodegradable, anti-allergic and breathable textile called WASHI. With more than a decade of combined fashion design experience, we have undertaken to continuously develop our skills to continue delivering a world class fashion design.
We aim to groom upcoming local designers, as well as continue to create employment in the textile industry, an industry that is ever developing in South Africa.
We have dedicated every part of our brand in the sustainability model, the reason for this is that we understand the negative impact that fashion has on the Planet regarding the material available on the market, methods and end of life span of the garment. This means that, our mission is to solve the issue of textile pollution from the core, which is the material used to create the fashion garments. Our mission is to supply fashion houses and brands with material that really is a solution to the problem should their products end up on a landfill although we hope that fashion brands can understand that creating timeless styles is also a way of eliminating fast fashion issues that often are determined by trends.
We create sustainable textile to minimize the impact and for the health of our fellow people.
Our brand aims to bring a permanent solution rather than the temporary and sometimes not-so-sustainable solutions currently available for brands who have chosen to take the sustainable approach to fashion textiles such as VISCOSE and COTTON. These seem to be sustainable however the chemicals and water used to produce them are far more harmful and water wasting than polyester and other manmade textiles.
Reasons why we have chosen to use Washi, a more sustainable and permanent solution to land and water pollution in the textile industry:
1. It dissolves underground in 4/6 weeks which means that it solves the LANDFILL problem and textile waste.
2. Softwood trees that are used to produce Washi, are trees that already are used to produce furniture and cannot be younger than 8 years old, only the waste part of the remaining tree is used to produce the textile, and this also contributes to the safeguarding the rainforest.
3. Washi is stronger than Cotton and has a lifespan of about 500/1000 years when in contact with air and water, this means that Washi garments are not fast fashion, but they are investment pieces that are meant to last, hance C S G does not follow the trends, but we create garments pieces that are timeless both in style and quality.
4. It is also good for health as it is an anti-allergic textile, it is breathable, absorbent, dries 50% faster than cotton, and minimizes odour as it is an organic material.
5. Washi has very high thermal conductivity compared to other textiles which means that during friction it does not create blisters on feet when it is used as a lining for shoes.
Washi today is available for a variety of clothing items, accessories, hospitality as well as home décor. Currently almost every fashion brand is trying to implement some sort of sustainability in their brands, but they are very cautious about it as it is a very costly approach now and risky too because there are no guarantees that the availability of the so-called alternative solution will give them a business sustainable sense in time.
Starting from the year 2015 in Italy, CSG has always had a clear idea about the type of fashion it wanted to produce, Sustainability in fashion is a firm point. The brand thrived in Europe, but as an African at heart, Gladys Semenya, the founder of CSG, always knew that coming back home to recreate the business and bring home the skills and knowledge of the Italian know-how was her real calling. Every product and material in the company is intentional as it concerns the construction methods and raw materials used on every piece, today with pride and joy. CSG is a 100% African brand that looks first to the African textile future and out to the world.
Currency we are relocating to Cape Town to start the textile manufacturing mill, we are partnering with likeminded companies who have taken a bold step in establishing sustainable business and are strong believers in the direction of sustainability in fashion.
We are targeting the hospitality sector and home décor, our first approach is participating in one of the 2 biggest exhibition event in the hotel sector. We will be presenting our first ever 100% Sustainable hotel room complete with bathrobes, towels, bedding, curtains and more. We have been approached by a vegan leather company from Italy that wishes for us to be their representative and ambassador in Africa
• Fashion show
• Runway show planning
• Training future designers
• Execution Cut
• Fabric/Material Analysis
• Fabric Maintenance
• Cutting and optimizing material usage
• Assembly and Packaging of Product
• Sewing
• Seam finishing
• Ironing
• Packaging
• Quality Control and Conformity
